


Damp Sulfur

by voleuse



Category: Angel: the Series
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-10-10
Updated: 2005-10-10
Packaged: 2017-10-04 10:00:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voleuse/pseuds/voleuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>I watch that sparrow the cat keeps batting around.</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	Damp Sulfur

**Author's Note:**

> Post-NFA. Title and summary adapted from Chana Bloch's _Tired Sex_.

Hell isn't anything like Eve expected. Mostly because she'd been there before. She didn't expect them to redecorate.

But when the building collapsed, there was brief, excruciating pain, then darkness.

When she opened her eyes again, it was to an indigo sky and a violet-strewn path.

"Not what I remember," she mutters to herself.

"It's different for everybody," a voice insinuates from off to the side. "After you die."

Eve turns her head, and there's a woman rising gracefully from her seat.

"What was it like for you?" she asks.

"Strip mall in Sun Valley." The woman rolls her eyes. "Tacky."

Eve scans her surroundings again. "Right."

"Lilah Morgan," the woman says, holding out her hand. "You're Eve."

Eve stares at the woman, barely registers the press of their hands.

Lilah smirks. "You've heard of me."

"Well, yeah." Eve starts to walk down the path. "They hated you. Kind of a lot."

Lilah strolls beside her. "Nice to know I was missed."

Eve snorts, then falls silent.

The night is quiet. Empty of the creeping scuttle she associates with hell.

They walk. And walk.

Finally, Eve breaks. Halts.

"When I signed the standard perpetuity clause, I didn't expect to spend my afterlife doing long walks after sunset."

"What?" Lilah folds her arms, smiles slow and shallow. "It's not romantic?"

"It's--" Eve pauses, shakes a sudden image out of her head. "I mean, what happens now? I thought I'd be working for the firm."

"You would be," Lilah replies, "if you'd been a good little girl and played by the rules. But you ran away."

Eve crosses her arms, mirrors Lilah's posture. "So?"

"So," Lilah says, "you've got this." She spreads her arms, encompassing the endless, green night. "Consider it a time out."

"Like I'm grounded?" Eve laughs. "Then what are you doing here?"

Lilah reaches forward, hooks her fingers in the collar of Eve's shirt. Pulls her close, then closer.

"Let's just say," Lilah murmurs, "I wasn't a good little girl, either."

Eve catches her breath, and Lilah smells like ashes and Chanel.

She closes her eyes, and Lilah tastes like dying all over again.


End file.
